Monday, October 11, 2004

Great article. Read and enjoy.This article was published by Business week in 1998.
Still worth reading and archiving.
Sastry Dasigi(1969 IITM AE)
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INDIA'S WHIZ KIDS

Inside the Indian Institutes of Technology's star factory Victor J. Menezes, the 49-year-old newly appointed co-CEO at Citigroup's corporate and investment banking branch, vividly remembers his grueling college years in India--and Professor M.S.Kamath's electrical engineering class in particular.

Menezes recalls Kamath as ''the most dreaded professor'' on campus 30 years ago atthe Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay. His class was the hardest to get into. And once in, students wondered what hit them. Kamath's grading system was a punch in the nose for students who fancied themselves as the best and brightest in India. Often, only one student per test got an 'A' --the top scorer. The second-best score got a B. Everyone else got Cs, Ds, or Fs. But Kamath had his reasons. Now retired and livingoutside Bombay, he brushes off his legendary reputation as a campus terror: ''I used to tell my students, 'IIT is a center of excellence.I don't want you to be third-rate products.' ''Far from it.

Some of the most prominent chief executives, presidents, entrepreneurs and inventors in the world are graduates of IIT, India's elite institution of higher learning. Its impossibly highstandards, compelling the mostly male student body to average fewer than five hours of sleep a night, produce numerate graduates who are masters at problem-solving. Familiar with Western ways due to India's colonial past, they have spent their academic years studying in English, which gives them an edge over other Asians competing for jobs in global corporations. While IIT has been producing talented engineers, scientists, and managers for four decades, the school has taken on a new prominence lately. With Menezes' ascension at Citigroup on Nov. 1 and the appointment of 45-year-old Rakesh Gangwal as US Airways Group's new CEO on Nov. 18, IIT counts two more alums among the highest ranks of global business. They join Rajat Gupta, who has led McKinsey & Co. for four years, Vinod Khosla, the co-founder of Sun Microsystems Inc., and hundreds of others now working in the top ranks of U.S.corporations and Silicon Valley powerhouses.

(BUSINESS WEEK has an IIT connection. Graduate Vasant Prabhu is president of the Information and Media Services unit of The McGraw-Hill Companies, BUSINESS WEEK's parent.) FORMER PRISON.

Wall Street firms rely on Institute grads to devise the complex algorithms behind their derivatives strategies while big multinationals call on them to solve problems in new ways. When recruiting from colleges for its annual crop of consultants, McKinsey hires a significant number of the school's graduates every year. Many more write the software and design the chips and peripherals that Silicon Valley sells to the world.

One example: The founders of Internet browser Junglee.com--all IIT grads--made fortunes in August by selling their company to Amazon.com, the online bookseller, for$180 million. The rise of IITians, as they are known, is a telling example of how global capitalism works today. The best companies draw on the best brains from around the world, and the result is a global class of worker: the highly educated, intensely ambitious college grad who seeks out a challenging career, even if it is thousands of miles from home.

By rising to the top of Corporate America, these alumni lead all other Asians in their ability to reach the upper echelons of world-class companies. It's not just that entrepreneurs have forged a path through high-tech arenas; corporate executives have proven proficient at managing companies, too. Cost-cutting by US Airways' Gangwal, for example, helped pull the airline back from the brink of bankruptcy and increased revenues four fold. In that regard, the story of these Indians provides a model for other Asians to emulate--and an example for U.S. companies and universities to ponder. For India has created, out of limited resources, a class of executives and entrepreneurs who manage to combine technical brilliance with great management skills. And the Indian government, to its credit, has not tried to keep these first-class students at home. In many ways, the IIT grad is the hottest export India has everproduced.

To mold them, the schools put these 18-year-olds through an experience akin to boot camp. Theories learned by rote--a key element of Japanese education--are only part of the experience. ''Students should see the problem and conjure up a solution, not only memorize a theory,'' says Deepak Phatak, professor of computer science at IIT-Bombay. The focus is on hands-on learning. IIT maintains workshops where students even learn how to make machine tools and operate rotation motors, the kinds of crafts relegated to trade schools inthe U.S.

When he helped found IIT in 1951, Jawaharlal Nehru, India's firstPrime Minister, wanted an elite that could build the great state-sponsored power plants, dams, and bridges so badly needed in the newly independent country. The planners drew on Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a Model and on UNESCO for funds to build the first campus, in Kharagpur, near Calcutta, in a former British prison for Indian political detainees. Five other campuses followed, in Kanpur, Delhi, Bombay, Madras, and most recently, Guwahati. At various times, the U.S., Britain, the former Soviet Union, and Germany have all provided backing.

FREE REIN.The schools have kept their edge by staying out of India's partisan politics. ''It is the most uncorrupt institution in India today,'' says Kartik Kilachand, a New York-based consultant and IIT alumnus. IIT has an autonomous board that doesn't have to kowtow to state bureaucracies. The Indian government pays most of the $3,000 it costs annually to educate each student. Famous alumni in India include B.K. Syngal, chairman of Reliance Telecom, Nirmal Jain, managing director of Tata Infotech, N.R. Narayanamurthy, founder of software developer Infosys, and Yogi Deveshwar, CEO of IndianTobacco. IIT's huge campuses are vastly superior to other Indian universities but spartan compared with Western counterparts. Many of the facultyhave U.S. degrees and are stars in their fields, such as V.Rajaraman, who has helped New Delhi formulate its software policy. Professors double as administrators, limiting India's notorious bureaucratic malaise.

More than 100,000 Indians aspire to enter IIT each year, sitting for the grueling entrance exams every May. Students typically spend two years in preparation. Of those, just 2,500 are admitted to the network of campuses. Fewer than 2,000 make it to graduation each year. ''The process of selection is absolutely draconian,'' saysMcKinsey head Gupta. Once in, it gets tougher.

Aman Parhar, 22, a biochemistry major atIIT-Delhi, was a high school star. ''But here, everyone is as smart or smarter than you are,'' he says. Textbooks are so expensive that an entire class of 25 often has to share a single book. Students routinely stay up until 3 a.m. to study--or, in IIT lingo, ''mug.'' But they get plenty of attention. Faculty-student ratios, at 1:6 or1:8, are among the world's lowest. MIT's is 1:11.

TECHNOBRATS? Tales abound of the secrecy and ritual of IIT's dormlife. Students have their own exclusive slang, where ''crack'' means a job well done, and ''fundoo,'' short for ''fundamental,'' means great. The jobs and salaries grads command make them highly prized in India's contractual marriage market. While some of the swagger gets beaten out of them by the rigors ofthe system, these students retain high expectations for their careers. Below the surface of being ''well mannered and polite,''according to Rukmini Bhaya Nair's book on IIT, Technobrat, students are ''ruthlessly competitive and have an annoying complacency at having 'arrived' at age 19.''This attitude often leads to disappointment with the opportunities India has to offer. Thousands of graduates have emigrated to theU.S., causing the Indian government anxiety over the brain drain of its brightest.

A full 30% of the graduating class--over 500 students--headed to the U.S. for graduate degrees and better job opportunities in 1998. In the more popular computer-science programs, nearly 80% leave for Silicon Valley. So routine is the exodus that at IIT-Madras, the local campus postman and bank clerk provide unsolicited advice on the best U.S. schools to attend. When acceptance letters arrive, the postman waits outside the student's door for a tip--alarge one if it's from a highly regarded university such as Stanford. While IIT does offer graduate programs, students know that an advanced degree from a U.S. institution is the entry ticket to an American or global corporation--and big bucks.

The U.S. also benefits enormously from the influx. Anna Lee Saxenian,an associate professor at the University of California at Berkeley, recently conducted a study of Silicon Valley's new immigrant entrepreneurs. According to Saxenian, of an estimated 2,000 startups in Silicon Valley, 40% are Indian-spawned, and of those, half are by IIT grads.The influx began in earnest in the 1970s as Indian students graduated from such schools as Stanford, MIT, and Carnegie Mellon and became a vital source of brainpower in the research labs of Hewlett-Packard, Intel, IBM, and Texas Instruments. They then played founding roles in Sun Microsystems, Cirrus Logic, and numerous other high-tech powers. Yogen Dalal, an IIT alumnus and partner with prominent venture-capital firm Mayfield, says the Valley has ''a critical mass of IIT alums who can finance and guide the new generation.'' Suhas Patil, who founded chip design innovator Cirrus Logic in 1984, is now a prominent ''angel'' investor who provides early capital and business connections for Indian-owned startups.

Another angel is Kanwal Rekhi, who founded and sold add-on board maker Excelan and who served as chief technology officer for Novell Inc. Among the dozen or so startups Rekhi helped launch are Ambit Design Systems, a developer of chip-design software, and info-tech consulting firm CyberMedia.

SCHOOLYARD LESSONS.
U.S. graduate schools actively seek out the institute's grads. California Institute of Technology ''writes to us regularly, asking us to recommend students for scholarships they have available,'' says Kharagpur campus Professor Badriprasad Gupta, who is vice-chairman of the entrance-exam committee. Amitabha Ghosh, director of IIT-Kharagpur, recalls the dean of the University of Maryland at College Park, entreating him to ''send his entire graduating class to Maryland'' and promising them all financial assistance. Even the French and German governments, faced with declining numbers of engineers, are trying to attract grads through exchange programs.

IIT graduates frequently find U.S. graduate schools a breeze by comparison. India's math-focused education gives students a leg up on American students, who depend heavily on calculators in the learning process. India has a long tradition of conceptual mathematics, and school children are forced to master multiplication tables early on.

The math advantage helps: Gangwal of US Airways, renowned in the aviation industry for his speedy mental calculations, says ''people always pegged me as being this terribly analytical guy who can run numbers in his head.'' Yet it was Gangwal's number-crunching that helped cut through the morass at the airline. Another factor of campus life is India's diversity of languages, ethnic groups, and castes. ''You learn how to manage across them,''says Citigroup's Menezes, who managed to thrive in Citibank's cut throat environment. ''You couldn't survive any Indian schoolyard unless you figured out how different people think and behave.

''Recently, IIT grads in the U.S. have been formalizing their powerful network. Two years ago, Indians and Pakistanis in the San Francisco area formed The Indus Entrepreneurs. Easily half its 1,000 members are IIT grads. ''We help each other and provide role models,'' says Desh Deshpande, an IIT-Madras alumnus whose computer-networking company, Cascade, recently was sold to Ascend Communications Inc. for $3.7 billion.

Now that they have the means, alums also want to help their almamater. Rekhi last year donated $2 million to the school and urgedfellow alumni to follow suit. Says Mayfield's Dalal, who has given$10,000 to kick off an alumni-sponsored endowment fund: ''We want tomake it right for the next generation.''

GOVERNMENT CUTBACKS.
Their help could not have come at a better time. New Delhi has been reducing funding to institutions of higher learning such as the IITs by 25% since 1993. Alumni help is taking its place: Vinod Gupta, for example, founder of Nebraska-based database American Business Information, recently built a $3 million school of management for IIT-Kharagpur.

McKinsey's Gupta is active insetting up a business school to open in 2001 in India, in conjunction with the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and Northwestern University's Kellogg School.

The IITs have also been teaming up with industry on development. IIT-Kharagpur patents a dozen new products each year. Companies such as Intel and Philips Electronics, which are big recruiters at the IITs, have funded endowments and scholarships. They have even bank rolled computer and electronics laboratories in order to keep IIT grads up to snuff on the latest technology. The bottom line for students and grads is that India has produced a world-class university at surprisingly little cost. By nurturing the schools, the government stands to reap huge rewards as these grads invest in India and draw it further into the circle of global trade and prosperity.

Much like Taiwan-born engineers in the U.S., IITgrads are well positioned to set up ventures in their native country. ''These Indians will play a key role in the resurgence ofIndia,'' says Vijay Sahni, country head for Arthur Andersen's India operations. It's not quite how Nehru thought it would be. But this school is vital to India's place in the world.

By Manjeet Kripalani in Bombay, with Pete Engardio and Leah Nathans Spiro in New York and bureau reports

Kharagpur's legend Indian Institute of Technology - Kharagpur, the first of theIITs, has come a long way from its modest beginnings.
By SUHRID SANKAR CHATTOPADHYAYINDIAN

Institute of Technology- Kharagpur, the oldest amongthe IITs, was formally inaugurated on August 18, 1951 by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. Over the next 50 years it not only set the standards for other similar institutions, but became a key contributor to the technological self-reliance of the country through numerous research projects sponsored by the scientific departments of the government and by other organisations. The idea of IITs was first conceived in 1946 by a committee set up by Sir Jogendra Singh, member of the Viceroy's Executive Council, Department of Education, Health and Agriculture. The 22-member committee, headed by N.R. Sarkar, recommended the establishment of four institutions for higher technical education in the eastern, western, northern and southern regions of the country. The objective behind the establishment of these institutes for undergraduate and post-graduate studies and research was to meet the demands of national development in the post-Independence period. Initially the institute started functioning from 5 Esplanade East, in the heart of Kolkata. It later shifted to Hijli in Midnapore district in September 1950. The idyllic, sylvansetting of Hijli, 120 km from Kolkata, was chosen to give students a peaceful atmosphere. The historical significance of Hijli must also have been taken into account while choosingthe site. The Hijli Detention Camp building - in which the IIT's first classrooms, laboratories, and administrative office were housed - was established in 1930 in order to incarcerate freedom-fighters. It was here that two unarmed detainees - Santosh Kumar Mitra and Tarakeswar Sengupta- were shot dead by the British police on September 16, 1931. Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose himself came to Hijli to collect their bodies. All national leaders, including RabindranathTagore, condemned the shooting. The camp was closed in 1937, reopened in 1940 to detain freedom-fighters, and closed finally in 1942. Since its modest start, IIT-Kharagpur has been engaged in a continuous process of development in terms of both infrastructure and research and development. In 1952, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru laid the foundation stone for the main building, which was completed and inaugurated in 1956. In the first convocation address the same year, he said: "Here as I stand in this place and my mind inevitably goes back to that infamous institution, for which this place became famous, not now but 20 or 30 years ago -the Hijli Detention Camp. Here in the place of that Hijli Detention Camp stands this fine monument of India, representing India's urges, India's future in the making. This picture seems to be symbolic of changes that are coming to India."Today the old jail complex is no longer a symbol of British colonialism; instead it houses the Nehru Museum and the offices of some government departments. The Indian Research Organisation, the Vinod Gupta School of Management, and the chemical engineering complex have come up in its vicinity. In place of the marshes that surrounded the jail complex, now there are gardens and forest management projects.When the first session started in August 1951, there were just 42 teachers and 224 undergraduate students in three departments. These students completed their four-year professional training in 1955. The first batch of post-graduates finished their course in 1954, after a one-year programme. IIT-Kharagpur has come a long way from those days to reach its present position of pre-eminence. It now has 450 teachers and 22 undergraduate and 64 post-graduate programmes, offered by 26 academic departments and schools. On September 15, 1956, Parliament passed the Indian Institute of Technology (Kharagpur) Act making it an institute of national importance. It was also given the status of an autonomous university. The President of India is the Visitor of all the IITs and is at the apex of the IIT administration. There is a Council to coordinate the activities of all the IITs. Each IIT has a board of governors to guide it in general policy-making. The head of each board is the Chairman, who is nominated by the President. The Director is the chief supervisor of the academic and administrative activities of the Institute. He is advised on all academic matters by the Senate, comprising senior members of the Institute and nominees from various sections. The first Director of IIT-Kharagpur was the eminent scientist Jnan Chandra Ghosh. The first board of governors was formed with Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy as chairman and N.R. Sarkar, Sir Jehangir J. Gandhi, Dr. Tara Chand, K.R.K. Menon, T. Sivasankar, S.S. Bhatnagar and Humayun Kabiras members. Eminent scholars from Europe, such as Prof. R.A. Kraus and Prof. H.Tischner, joined the institute in its formative years. Tischner was also the first head ofthe Electronics and Communication Engineering department. In the beginning, IIT-Kharagpur laid emphasis was on producing trained manpower of the highest quality for the benefit of major industries that came up in the post-Independence era. In the 1970s, however, MTech and PhD programmes on specialised areas of study were given emphasis. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the Institute focussed more on research and application of research for societal needs. Apart from training its own students, IIT-Kharagpur took part in a programme of continuing education. Teachers from other technical institutions came to IIT-Kharagpur for higher studies under the Quality Improvement Programmelaunched in 1972. By 1994, this programme was consolidated under the Continuing Education Centre, which had a new dean at its helm. Despite being about 120 km west of Kolkata, IIT-Kharagpur is well connected by train services and roads to all major citiesin the country. It is only about 5 km from the Kharagpur railway station, which has the longest railway platform in Asia. The Institute is a fully residential, self-sufficient unit. It has its own water and electric supply substations and all services such as the maintenance of campus amenities, buildings and roads are provided by the Institute itself. It has its own security service for the sprawling 600-hectare campus. A modern telephone facility with ISDN and smart cardservice and a hospital with 60 beds are maintained by the Institute. For the recreation of students, there are two indoor and outdoor stadia, an outdoor swimming pool, as football ground, a cricket field and tennis courts. The Institute also has its own market where provisions are available. Four nationalised banks and six privately owned restaurants are located on the campus. For the education of the children of the faculty, there are four schools - the Hijli High School, a Kendriya Vidyalaya, the DAV Modern School and the St. Agnes School (which has up to Class Five). For the students there are 16 halls of residence, including one for married research scholars and one for defence personnel who study at the Institute. New residential halls are being constructed in view of an expected increase in student intake and a multi-storeyed apartment complex is being built for the faculty. The total population at the Institute is around 20,000. There are also three guest houses and a visitors' hostel. The campus has many auditoriums and an open-air theatre that can seat over 3,000 people. A new building is also being constructed to house some departments that have expanded. The new building will have lecture halls with seating capacities of 800 each. Apart from its main campus, IIT-Kharagpur has two extension campuses - in Kolkata and in Bhubaneswar - which provide the venue for continuing education programmes, seminars, exhibitions and distance learning courses. Unlike many other institutions in the country, IIT-Kharagpur was never shackled by any kind of regionalism. The Spring Fest organised by the students is arguably the most famous and popular college festival in the entire eastern region. Its participants come from as far away as Shillong and Hyderabad. All those associated with the Institute live on the campus. They come from different parts of the country and belong to different religions, communities, classes and language groups, but are bound by one common goal - pursuit of excellence in technical education.

This is a very good speech by the CEO of COCA COLA that is worth a read...Banumathy.KTHE SPEECH:Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them - work, family, health, friends and spirit and you're keeping all of these in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls *family, health, friends and spirit* are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for balance in your life."How?*Don't undermine your worth by comparing yourself with others. It is because we are different that each of us is special.* Don't set your goals by what other people deem important.Only you know what is best for you.* Don't take for granted the things closest to your heart. Cling to them as they would your life, for without them, life is meaningless.* Don't let your life slip through your fingers by living in the pastor for the future. By living your life one day at a time, you live all days of your life.* Don't give up when you still have something to give. Nothing is really over until the moment you stop trying.* Don't be afraid to admit that you are less than perfect. It is this fragile thread that binds us together.* Don't be afraid to encounter risks. It is by taking chances that we learn how to be brave.* Don't shut love out of your life by saying it's impossible to findtime. The quickest way to receive love is to give; the fastest wayto lose love is to hold it too tightly and the best way to keep love is to give it wings.* Don't run through life so fast that you forget not only where you've been, but also where you are going.* Don't forget, a person's greatest emotional need is to feel appreciated.* Don't be afraid to learn. Knowledge is weightless, a treasure you can always carry easily.* Don't use time or words carelessly. Neither can be retrieved. Life is not a race, but a journey to be savored each step of the way.

Following is the copy of the article in IndiaToday in which the extent to which the Alumni can contribute to their Alma mater and how it can make dramatical differences is highlighted.T.S.RamanujamIITM-B.Tech 1969EXCLUSIVE INDIA TODAY- GALLUP SURVEY Of IIT'sMay 13 2002 EngineeringBy Labonita GhoshIIT-Kharagpur has maintained its lead over the other IIT's for two consecutive years with some help fromits alumni.IITians never forget their alma mater. This year, after IIT-Kharagpur (IIT-KGP) wraps up its year-long golden jubilee celebrations, India's oldest school for higher technical education might finally get time to acknowledge its "gifts". The one most likely to stand out comes from a group of IIT-KGP's former students, now settled abroad.The newly formed IIT Foundation bequeathed a Rs 30-crore grant for an ambitious networking project: to put all of its 2,700 students online. Last year's expansion plan had installed pcs in every hostel room. This academic year, thanks to NRI patrons like Purnendu Chatterjee and Suhas Patil, students find they cansurf the Net, log into the central library to browse and borrow, and even read texts online from the comfort of their rooms. The foundation has pledged to take care of the academic costs of the first 100 students who qualify in the Joint Entrance Examination. Educationists have always dreamt about a classroom sans walls. At IIT-KGP, this is becoming a reality. Last year, professors teaching 24 of the 26 subjects put their lectures (approximately 200 hours of lessons) on CD."Advances in technology allow us to expose our students to a lot of things not covered in the classroom," says director Amitabha Ghosh. "If a student misses a lecture, he can always catch it on CD later. "This e-learning leap is especially helpful to students interested in subject outside their chosen combinations. Since last year, the institute allows students to mix and match their minor subjects. Students of mechanical engineering, say, can enhance their skills by taking online computer science courses.The institute is also using its infrastructure grants to stay on the cutting edge of technology. An advanced VLSI design laboratory helps budding techies design chips as does the MIT-sponsored media laboratory.A Georgia Tech tie-up will allow students to work summers in the US labs and explore the pre-commercial advantageof inventions. "We believe in giving our students the ambience to foster better and more innovative ideas," says C.S. Kumar ofthe Physics department. There's no doubt about it.

Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala is Professor of the Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, India. B.Tech degree from IIT, Kanpur, in 1975 MS (1977) and Ph.D degree (1979) from the University of Maine, USA Assistant Professor, Washington State University from 1979 to 1981. Faculty at IIT-Madras, since 1981 Dr.Jhunjhunwala leads the Telecommunications and Computer Networks Group (TeNeT) at IIT Madras.

This group is working closely with industry in the development of a number of Telecommunications and Computer Network Systems. TeNeT group has incubated a number of R&D companies which work in partnership with TeNeT group to develop world class technologies. The products includecor DECT Wireless in Local Loopsystem, Fibre Access Network, DSL Systems and several other systems. They include - Midas Communications, Banyan Networks, Nilgiri Networks, Vembu Systems, etc The group has recently incubated a company - n-Logue - whose aim is to install telephone and Internet in every village in India.

Awards:* Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award for outstanding contributions in the field of Engineering Sciences in 1998
* Dr.Vikram Sarabhai Research Award for the year 1997.
* Millennium Medal at Indian Science Congress in the year 2000
* Dr. P.Sheel Memorial Lecture Award by National Academy of Sciences, India, for the year 2001 .
* Fellow of Indian National Academy of Engineering, Indian NationalScience Academy and National Academy of Science
* Governor of International Council for Computer Communications (ICCC)
* Padmashri, in 2002

I just finished watching "A Big Fat Greek Wedding". I am sure most of you would have seen this nice comedy. If you have not I highly recommend it to you. There is a scene where the brother says to his sister "Don't let your past dictate who you are,let it be part of who you will Become."
I hope impressionable young Indians in America understand the depth of this statement.
This is perhaps the most appropriate quotation I can come up with in response to this article by an American Indian.

I was quite impressed with the beginning which spurred me to read on. By the time I got to the end I was just left saddened by how Indians who have gone to America (not all but definitely the sort of people who endorse articles like this or similar views) have been brain washed by the American ways of doing anything and everything for money.

To feel that there will be no life or future for India unless we become American Lap dogs and hang out for the crumbs definitely gets to me. Indians in America should get off this HIGH horse that makes them feel superior. There is lot more to life than money. If money and the Green Back was taken out of the equation, it will be interesting to see how many Indians in American would like to say "Back home in America" and continue living there.

We all know not every Indian who goes to America is successful. A handful make it big and it is their destiny not their doing. The rest are gainfully employed like people anywhere in the world

Majority in USA proudly told their families back home in India that they were doing Body Shopping Business. The first time I heard this from a friend of mine in Hyderabad that his future son in law was doing body shopping I was shocked and appalled. I assumed it was some sort of Brothel business. I now know it is a name for recruiting IT workers at low wages to serve in America a sort of slave trade like it or not. Since 9/11 all this body shopping artists have been without jobs them selves.

The one advantage is that every American dollar buys you Rs 55. Take that out of the equation life in America Stinks. Like it or not. There is no life for Indians in America if they have no money. You cannot even get a decent medical treatment if you are ill.

Ours is an age old Indus Valley civilisation and we have a rich culture, which has withstood so many invasions and assaults, life in India will go on with or without America. The Caucasians ruled the world with gun powder and slight. They have deceived the world for well over a century. Of course the allied forces saved the world from Hitler in the second world war. Now the same allied forces are determined to exercise the same control over the world as Hitler did by disarming the entire world while they arm them selves to their teeth.

They are not allied forces anymore. The British and the Aussies (the people) want to disassociate themselves from America. John Howard is getting pelted with rotten eggs and tomatoes since America announced that Australia cannot sell wheat to Iraq any more and cancelled all previous contracts in favour of American companies. .

From now on it is going to be the "UGLY Americans Vs the Rest of the world." Bush's administration has destroyed what America stood for in the past. We trust and hope the next election will restore America in its true glory. .

Terminology like American Start up's, Venture Capitalists, Fortune 500, Board Rooms, Profitability all reminds me of Michael Dougla's Movie the Wall Street. 'It is Greed and all about GREED".

Let us change the equation says the author by becoming better at being Lap Dogs to America hoping we might get to gnaw at bigger bones with may be some meat.

I am constantly reading about India becoming the Silicon Valley of the world. Is this really true ?.
Consider this, in the 70's one Australian dollar fetched two and a half Singapore dollars. A whole lot of manufacturing was moved from Australia to Singapore. When the Singapore dollar got stronger there was a shift of focus toward Thailand and Malaysia and in the 90's the focus was on China when it came to manufacturing. India was out of question those days because of Government controls. Even Coca Cola did not survive in India. Companies lke Nike run sweat shops in Vietnam and Thailand to manufacture their shoes for a pittance to sell them with perhaps a 1000% margin to the western world. Sheer exploitation.

Now the IT business is no different. India educates perhaps about 200,000 IT graduates each year and thus creates a huge supply of cheap labour. American companies can employ five Indian Graduates in India as compared to one American graduate. If course it amounts to getting five times productivity for the same cost.

While all te major multinationals are setting up business in a big way in Bangalore and Hyderabad and sure help create employment it will be interesting to see the annual returns to see how much tax these companies pay to the Indian government. Australians only know too well as most of the multinationals pay less that 5% in corporate tax. Funds are juggled around between companies globally and audits are conducted by the likes of Andersons who have access to all tax specialists who know all the loop holes that Local tax offices are scared to take them on. Companies like Exxon, Mobil , BP etc pay very very little as a token gesture to Australia as annual tax. I am sure the same is true in India unless it is a joint venture.

Let us Change the Equation: (My way of Thinking).
-IITians have been away in USA for more than 50 years now.
-Let us hope fellows in USA have learnt some good tricks (I do not mean dope sniffers and the like) that they can teach our people in India.
- Sit in your OWN Board rooms in India instead of playing second fiddle in some American firm. I am sure some will turn around and say what are you doing? For your information exactly what I am preaching. I have certainly learnt a few tricks in my time and am doing my little bit to pass them on. Australia is a fine country and the Australians are lovely people and I have no regrets about that either.
- Forget that India is a third world country as this is a Tag given by the west to keep our country down-trodden and with Rs 55 to one American dollar we will be a third world country for may be another century.
- Go and see the real poor in USA and UK and you will find that the poor in India can still smile as they know nothing better, something the poor in the west cannot do as they have seen better times.
- Get out of the slave mentality that we have grown up with as our parents and grand parents were used to serving the British Sahibs. Stop being subservient and be a BOSS yourself . I am proud to say that at least three of my class mates are doing exactly the same. One friend, in fact, is designing Chips in Hyderabad and making them in Taiwan and selling them back to USA. Now this is the equation we are after.
- Successful Indians in America and elsewhere in the world would agree that Indians are a much cleverer race than the Caucasians. The ones we have to contend with in the future are the Chinese as they are just as clever if not cleverer.
- India was held back the last 50 years by Nehru's stupidity while China's set back was Communism. Both countries are free of these shackles to grow at will and become the Forces to Reckon with.
- Stop thinking about how sitting in USA you can create a few opportunities for Indian companies. It is time to stop looking up to the western world and become independent and lead the way in research and technology. Let us stop playing the catching game and take the lead. This is where China's strength is. They can copy anything overnight (which we in India cannot) and the next day are ahead of the west where they copied something from. At the moment India has a small edge in IT because of the language advantage. This will not hold out for ever.
- I remember a family migrated to Australia from mainland China and the little girl joined year nine without knowing a word of English. In year twelve she scored a 100 TER and went on to join the medical school. We Indians may boast of education in English. Majority however cannot compose one grammatically correct letter and lack communication skills. Most Indians are scared to stand up and make a speech. Why? because there is no such thing as show and tell in our schools.
- The Chinese are learning English very very fast, like it or not, as Australian Universities are behind it all the way. AGSM in Sydney is full of students from mainland China. Australian Universities are setting up facilities in China. If I remember right, China is interested in setting up 100 IIT type institutions and, if I remember correct, our own Rajat Gupta of McKinsey is working on this Blue Print for China.
- If Indians were smart we should forget about the west, that will for ever use us as slaves and cheap labour. Bill Gates is not interested in India. There is only one thing that Bill Gates or for that matter any American is ever interested in. That is "The Bottom Line."
So Let us Change the equation " Forget the west, it is a spent force and will liquidate itself soon by its own greed. Look up to partnerships with China. For those of you who have not grown out of the incursion in the sixties by a Communist Chinese regime, I mix with a lot of Chinese in Sydney and, believe me, they are nice people. (Ravi Prasad, take note: Indians' future depends on strategic alliances with China ) If India and China stand united then no one will ever dare to call India a THIRD WORLD Country EVER again.

I fully agree it is Time to Change the Equation folks. It will be interesting to ward off the brick bats for the next couple of days.

I support the Australian farmers who have just as much right to sell wheat and meat to IRAQ as the UGLY Americans. I am sure the French and Germans have no chance at all if UK and Aussies get booted out.

Guess what do these stalwarts have in common?
They are all products of the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology which is gradually becoming a synonym for skill, talent, knowledge and expertise.

The IITs are churning out top-notch engineerswith a regularity that thrills corporations around the world. These government-sponsored institutes are considered the best in India, and their alumni can be found in the top executive positions in companies across the globe. According to the recent estimates, 25,000 IIT graduates are currently employed in the US, out of which, some of them have also turned entrepreneurs, who have seen their net worth grow almost overnight to mind boggling millions or even billions of dollars.

Such is the success record of the IITians worldwide. Each year the six IITs have more names making to the who's who list in the US business community than any other Indian institution, and most American universities as well. Ashutosh Roy, Gunjan Sinha, Suhas S Patil, Arjun Malhotra, Vinod Gupta are some of the IITians who have hit it big as entrepreneurs abroad.

However, many more can be added to the unending list. Global Acceptance "Brand IIT is, by now, so well established that in the future too, the IIT graduates will continue to be successful," says Nandan Nilekani, CEO,Infosys, while speaking to The Wall Street Journal. Nilekani graduated from IIT Bombay in 1978. Cisco Systems Inc., in San Jose, Calif., says it has already hired more than 1,000 IITians over the years and it plans to increase the number as per convenience. According to the director of a major US research firm, the IITs are one of its most important sources of research talent, both in the US and Asia.

What makes them what they are "IITians", the name itself evokes some prototypes. They have the required skill, experience, imagination and enthusiasm to make it to the top. "Being from an IIT background has contributed to a great extent", says Rahul Pandey, an IIT Roorkee product, who is currently employed with HPCL. The training at IIT is very vigorous, and so is the selection process.

"The JEE is the toughest undergraduate entrance exam of its kind in the world, and it acts as a guillotine at the IITs' entrance," says Sandipan Deb, author of "The IITians" while speaking to The Wall Street Journal .

Finally, the experience of staying on campus is also crucial in building interpersonal skills and in providing students with leadership qualities. The missing link Even as IIT and other engineering schools enjoy global attention, students hold a different point of view. Few students prefer to pursue US degree as the course curriculum is wider and not limited to just engineering. Despite this, an IIT degree is a ticket to being a part of the high profile tech brigade which has already made a mark on the world tech map.

R. Gopalakrishnan, executive director of Tata Sons, a diversified group of companies in India, and an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur, who has studied the "IIT brand," told the Wall Street Journal that, even engineers from other Indian universities now do their master's degrees at the IITs.